The Health Foundation's approach to research and development
Quality of healthcare in the UK
The field of quality improvement has expanded rapidly in recent years. To date there has not been enough national investment in developing the evidence base to guide improvement activity. Less than 2% of the UK’s R&D spend goes towards improving understanding of how health systems work and how to make sure the established knowledge is used to benefit patients. Currently there is also a lack of training opportunities for top quality researchers to learn about and lead improvement science.
The Health Foundation’s unique offering
The Health Foundation is in an excellent position to address challenges currently facing quality improvement activity in the UK. We have done extensive scoping work to identify where we can best add value. Our offering is unique because:
- we are able to optimise synergies between our research activity, programming activities and influencing work
- our endowment and independence enable us to develop a comprehensive perspective and long-term view
- we have a strong UK orientation complemented by good international links which enable us to draw on best practice world-wide.
Our R&D strategy aims to:
- strengthen the evidence base on how to improve quality in the healthcare systems of the UK
- use this body of knowledge to shape our own work programmes
- promote the evidence base to decision makers at all levels in the healthcare system.
Our audience
Our research is tailored to a research literate audience who are under significant time pressures. Crucially we aim for credibility with brevity. We want to encourage a wide set of health leaders to use the Health Foundation as a source of knowledge and debate about how to improve services. We are developing a valuable body of R&D work for clinical and managerial decision makers as well as academics and policy makers.
Our work focuses on three workstreams:
- Best evidence: commissioning reviews of quality improvement literature
- Primary research: commissioning original research within the Health Foundation’s strategic focus
- Building capacity for improvement science: commissioning training opportunities and investing in host organisations to develop leaders for research.
More information
Reports from our completed R&D projects can be downloaded or ordered free of charge from the publications section.
